Production capacity of Maruti Suzuki Celerio to be doubled to 10,000 units a month

Snapshot: The move is being planned to meet the high demand of the hatchback in the Indian market.

Just as we predicted, the Celerio hatchback has kept the cash register bell ringing continuously, for the Indian automaker ever since the car was launched at the 2014 Delhi Motor Show. Looking to make the most of the ridiculously high demand for the Celerio hatchback, Maruti Suzuki is now planning to double the production capacity of the model to 10,000 units a month. The current production of the hatchback stands at 5,000 a month.

According to reports, the Indian automaker is currently in talks with its vendors to know whether they will be able to match the kind of doubling capacity. With the company discontinuing the production of the Ritz and the A-Star, Maruti has un-utilised production capacity of 17,000 units per month. If Maruti Suzuki gets a positive response from its vendors, then the company will be able to double the production capacity to 10,000 units a month by July 2014.

As we had reported earlier in the month, most of the customers of the newly launched Celerio hatch are opting for the expensive automative variants, surprising the company and signalling a significant demand for automatic cars, which are known for effortless drives and faster acceleration.

According to some Maruti Suzuki insiders, more than 52 per cent of around 20,000 Celerio cars delivered and booked so far in the country have been the automatic variant. This is almost double the share the company had initially expected.

The automatic Celerio comes at a starting price of Rs 4.14 lakh after the excise reduction on February 17, while the manual-geared version is priced Rs 3.76 lakh onwards. Launched at the 2014 Delhi Auto Expo, Maruti Celerio is the first car to be offered with automatic manual transmission (AMT) in the country. This improved technology has allowed Maruti to cut down the price difference with manual cars by more than half to Rs 37,843, and retain fuel efficiency at par with the manual version at 23 kmpl.